If you're too young to remember the old Internet before the web, start up a terminal window and enter some commands at the Bash prompt. The whole Internet used to looked like that: no colors, no hyperlinks, no videos, no digital home photos – all a lot clunkier, and all in black and white. But guess what the old Internet didn't have: no flashing banners, no cookies, no identity marketing, no ad scripts, and no phishing attacks. The truth is, the power and complexity of today's World Wide Web has led to some practices that many users find downright annoying.

Now a group of devoted but disillusioned web users is fighting back by bringing back the old Gopher protocol, a simple texted-based menu system that was often used to publish online information before the arrival of HTML and HTTP. Or, if you're not in a hurry to return to the days of Gopher, the new Gemini protocol has some of the powers of the modern age in a simpler and less dangerous form. Read about these solutions in "Beyond the Web" in this month's Linux Voice.

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